<p>From the Alabama website:
Students are encouraged to meet the preferred housing application deadline of April 1, in order to maintain the possibility of participation in room selection. Students who apply for housing after April 1 will be assigned by HRC staff. </p>
<p>I won’t hear back from some of my schools until on or around April 1. I find it unwise to commit to Alabama if I haven’t heard back from everywhere. </p>
<p>I have already been admitted to and really love the Honors College here. If I apply after April 1, can I still get a spot in Honors Housing?
Thank you!</p>
<p>tropical, this is what I was told by our regional rep when I posed a similar question (emphasis added is mine):</p>
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<p>I’m really only concerned that my kid have access to Honors College housing if he decides to attend (not so much the roommate thing) because I think one has to have been admitted to honors housing as a freshman in order to remain as an upperclassman. If he decides to move off campus later, fine, but I’d love to know he has guaranteed housing for four years.</p>
<p>ETA: This is the original question I emailed her that she was responding to:</p>
<p>Incoming freshmen are encouraged to submit their housing applications as soon as they feel comfortable doing so, in order to maximize their housing options, as room selection/housing assignments are based on primarily on date of housing application. Students who apply for housing by February 1 are guaranteed access to online room selection, while students who apply after February 1 will be assigned by HRC staff, taking into consideration their preferred housing options, as long as space permits. Honors Housing is located in the Ridgecrest community. We do not know at this time how many current residents will choose to return there next year, or how many incoming freshmen will select Honors Housing. Therefore, it is impossible to guarantee that Honors Housing will be available to students with later housing application dates. HRC staff continue to assist students with assignment to Honors Housing, as long as space permits. Please note, the housing prepayment of $275.00 is fully refundable for students who apply for housing but cancel their contract by May 1. Students who cancel their housing contract between May 2 and June 1 will receive a refund of $175.00.</p>
<p>Lucie, I just read your post and I want to let you know that housing is not guaranteed to anyone (except housing scholarship students) for 4 years. Freshman are guaranteed, I believe, but no one else. Last year many sophomores who applied did not get a space in the dorms.</p>
<p>Kjcphmom, thanks for correcting me on that. I must have misunderstood what I’d read in that regard. </p>
<p>Speaking of which, I’m more confused than ever about this depositing thing. Janine, how can my son commit to Bama by 2/1 when he won’t even receive all his decisions for two more months? He’d have to break his signed Common App agreement to do that.</p>
<p>What is the Common App agreement? If it only deals with double depositing then this wouldn’t violate it, would it?</p>
<p>If he decides to move off campus later, fine, but I’d love to know he has guaranteed housing for four years.</p>
<p>This wouldn’t be possible. There are too many frosh that start out in honors housing to promise 4 years. The school could be caught off-guard if for a few years every honors freshman wanted to continue in honors housing. There’s only enough honors beds to meet the need of the frosh honors kids, the housing scholarship kids and a small number of others.</p>
<p>Janine, if one of my daughter’s prospective roommates does not pay her housing deposit until after 2/1, will my daughter still be able to pull her into their suite? My daughter paid hers on 10/1.</p>
<p>mom2, thanks, I misunderstood, but kjcph explained it to me. It looks like it’s a moot point because there’s no way my son can apply for housing until he makes a final decision and that won’t happen until April at the earliest. It doesn’t sound like any Honors housing will be available at that point.</p>
<p>I don’t have the Common App language in front of me, but the student is asked to sign an agreement that he will not enroll in any school he doesn’t plan to attend. Until he has all his offers, my son cannot in good faith inform Bama he plans to enroll there, and you can’t put a housing deposit down UNTIL you enroll.</p>
<p>This issue has come up before, and I just figured well, “them’s the breaks,” but I’m not gonna lie, it’s VERY frustrating!</p>
<p>It doesn’t sound like any Honors housing will be available at that point.</p>
<p>I don’t think there have been cases of honors students not getting honors housing. There have been cases of there not being any beds at a very late sign up time, but then beds become available in May, June, etc, and then those that want honors get them. </p>
<p>I don’t know if Bama still does this, but Bama used to set aside X honors beds for NMFs/NAs that they thought might enroll. Then when the actual numbers materialize around May 1st or later, Bama releases those extra honors beds.</p>
<p>NC Mom, the housing priority in the past has gone strictly by the person doing the selection. Unless there are changes this year, the only deposit date in a suite of 4 that counts is the date the person assigning rooms deposited.</p>
<p>We met people at Bama Bound in July who were not able to get into honors housing, including a CBHP student. My D has a friend in Lakeside now who could not get an Honors room. Another freshman she knows lives off campus because no honors rooms were available. And this was after the buy-out offers for upperclass to move off campus. We don’t know the total number who wanted Honors housing and didn’t get it, so giving reassurances here seems inappropriate.</p>
<p>My NMF D got her honors room when one of the four in the suite decided not to attend after paying her deposits early. Given the pressure to pay deposits even if one is unsure, I would be most hopeful of spots opening up from kids who make final decisions to attend elsewhere after receiving their Regular decisions and financial packages from other schools.</p>
<p>Yes, this last year may have been an exception because of the shortage of housing overall.</p>
<p>This fall, the second Presidential Hall will open providing about 1000 more beds. I don’t know if those beds will be honors or not, but I suspect that even if they aren’t honors, that some honors kids with scholarships will move there because of its newness, the dining hall, and the new fitness center there.</p>
<p>Mom2twins, hopefully there are enough honors kids getting shut out of honors housing that they find each other and form their own little honors communities around campus. And it sounds like the housing office will work with kids to help them find the best possible situation. Really, is there any bad housing at UA? It all sounds rather luxurious compared to the dump I lived in my freshman year! :-)</p>
<p>Lucie
Last year we deposited at Bama before hearing from the Common App schools. I asked Common App schools about this and 2 specifically told me it was NOT considered a double deposit IF we rescinded the Bama acceptance (and lost our enrollment deposit) PRIOR to depositing at Common App school. I was willing to lose the enrollment deposit. The housing deposit is refundable.</p>
<p>I figured there was a way around the agreement, and we may get to the point where we do exactly that, but S wasn’t able to attend the Capstone event this past weekend because of a previous commitment, and we won’t make our first visit to Tuscaloosa until the middle of March, so I’m not sure I want to pay to enroll him yet. The scholarship is so enticing, but he’s waiting on several other schools still. And I just got the Visa bill for a bunch of his December applications–the application costs are really adding up! </p>
<p>Has your son met a lot of Honors College kids who didn’t get into honors college housing? Did it work out okay for them?</p>
<p>Keep in mind that after you visit in March and fall completely in love with UA, you will probably kick yourself in the rear all the way home! Don’t despair. All your S has to do is find a roomie who deposited early. That young man can pull others into his suite.</p>